1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to copier/printers, and more particularly to monitoring multi-sheet, collated copy sets of a multi-original document for confirming, for example, that each copy set contains all of the sheets, and has no grossly skewed, or unwanted duplicate or blank sheets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In printers, it is known to monitor printed paper to produce electrical signals characteristic of the printed image, and to compare these signals to a standard signal to decide whether or not the printed image is acceptable. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,031, which issued on Oct. 1, 1985 to N. Kobayashi, discloses a printer wherein each print is electronically scanned to decide if printed sheets are identical to a standard sheet. The image signal from each print might be used as the standard for the next succeeding print, or an image signal from the first print produced can serve as a common standard for all succeeding prints.
While such a system is fine to assure that all prints are acceptably similar to each other, the system does not monitor a multi-sheet, collated copy set of a multi-original document for confirming, for example, that each copy set contains all of the sheets, and has no grossly skewed, or unwanted duplicate or blank sheets.
Commonly assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 090,308, filed Sept. 14, 1987 in the name of B. H. Mills (which application is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 940,832 filed Dec. 12, 1986) discloses a process control system for electrostatographic copier/printers wherein an electrical signal characteristic of the image on an original document is used to create a copy of the original. If the operator deems the copy quality unacceptable, the copy sheet is scanned and the electrical signal generated is compared to that of the original. Any differences between the two electrical signals are used to adjust the image process control parameters of the copier/printer.
While the process control system of the Mills application provides a useful method for adjusting the electrostatographic process of a copier/printer, it does not monitor a multi-sheet copy set of a multi-original document for confirming, for example, that each copy set contains all of the sheets, has no grossly skewed, or unwanted duplicates or blank sheets.